MessianicMusings.com

I’ve been busy all summer teaching the bar and bat mitzveh class at my congregation, Kehilat Sar Shalom. Though not without a bump here and there, it’s been rewarding work because I feel at age 40 I’ve finally found my “voice” as a teacher and am able to capture enough of my students’ respect that I can actually teach them something.

So this week, I felt like it was time to reward the kids for nearly a summer’s worth of hard work. I wanted to do something nice, but it’s not like I could afford a gund stuffed animal for each of them or anything.

So I settled on the universal uniter: food. But it’s harder than ever to choose food wisely. Not only must something be found that is within kosher laws – easily met by going with baked goods – but with so many allergies going around these days, it’s hard to find something that’s safe for everyone.

We have at least one family in our congregation with the peanut allergy, so my first choice of M&M Cookies had to be put aside, since the package confessed it was made in a kitchen where exposure to trace amounts of peanuts might be present.

What I finally settled on was little white mini-cupcakes. It was a very vanilla selection, but at least no one got sick from it.